In addition to three changing gallery spaces, the Museum has a number of permanent exhibitions and installations, from the Colorado Nursery Wall that Schulz painted for his daughter Meredith, to the outdoor Snoopy Labyrinth that visitors can meander through as they contemplate their relationship with nature.
Charles Schulz’s studio was the center of his working life; a refuge, a place where he often talked with friends and fellow cartoonists … and the place where he created Peanuts.
This permanent installation, on the second floor of the Museum, is a re-creation of Schulz’s working area in his studio at One Snoopy Place in Santa Rosa, California. It contains the drawing board he used almost from the beginning of his career and his desk. The shelves and walls include his personal books, gifts, photos, and memorabilia.
An admirer of the extraordinary environmental artworks by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Schulz paid tribute to the artists in this 1978 Peanuts comic strip.
This Peanuts comic strip was first published on November 20, 1978.
Twenty-five years later, Christo returned the compliment by creating Wrapped Snoopy House, a life-sized doghouse wrapped in tarpaulin, polyethylene, and ropes, and presenting it to Jean Schulz for permanent display at the Museum.
Peanuts Tile Mural
The Peanuts Tile Mural by Japanese artist Yoshiteru Otani measures slightly larger than 17 x 22 feet, and covers the south wall of the Great Hall. It features an image of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown and is composed of 3,588 Peanuts comic strip images printed on individual 2 x 8 inch ceramic tiles.
Japanese artist Yoshiteru Otani designed two major art installations for the Great Hall of the Museum; this sculpture and a tile mural. Looking much like a bas relief sculpture as installed on the east wall of the Great Hall, Morphing Snoopy is composed of 43 layers that have been shaped and cut to reveal the evolving personas of Snoopy, beginning with Spike, Schulz’s childhood pet and inspiration for the world famous beagle.
On September 10, 2001, the Museum received a unique donation: a wall of original Schulz art from the Colorado Springs home of Polly and Stanley Travnicek. The wall, which includes images of Snoopy when he still bounded around on all fours and Charlie Brown jumping over a candlestick, was painted by Schulz when he and his young family lived in their Colorado Springs bungalow in 1951. This stunning example of Schulz’s art in his formative years is one of the Museum’s most cherished donations.
Encouraging a connection with nature, the Snoopy Labyrinth unfolds for visitors just to the east of the Museum’s entrance. Differing from mazes, which feature false starts and dead ends, labyrinths feature only a single winding path. The Museum’s labyrinth, in the shape of Snoopy’s head, celebrates a love of Peanuts. Designed by Lea Goode-Harris of Santa Rosa Labyrinth Foundation, the path was designed as a journey of self-discovery and to bring joy to visitors as they enter at the base of Snoopy’s neck and finish at Snoopy’s ear.
